


they always do

by smallredboy



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hopeful Ending, Post-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 07:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17862788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: Eleanor overthinks.





	they always do

**Author's Note:**

> i watched the good place in the span of a week and im in love! stan cheleanor stan talent
> 
> also fills the 'against all odds' square in my trope bingo card
> 
> enjoy!

Eleanor can’t stand this.

She can’t stand that Chidi doesn’t remember her, she can’t stand that she’s slowly becoming friends with Simone, she can’t stand that Tahani is looking hotter by the day. She hates how Chidi looks all happy and nervous and indecisive like he was the first time he died, she hates how he looks at her like she’s just the role she’s taken up— the architect. Granted, the really hot architect, but still, the architect.

She doesn’t know how to navigate this. How to navigate Tahani’s welcome party, how to talk to Jason, how to talk to anyone. Michael is half-recovered from his nervous breakdown, and he’s been bouncing off ideas on Janet about his plans for the four humans, all of them connected to the original four of them, for them to grow into better people.

Is it even possible? What if they, after all, were a fluke?

She can’t stand to think about it. She doesn’t like to overthink, she hates when Chidi overthinks, but she’s doing exactly that right now. She spends her time thinking and talking to Michael, talking to the residents, evenly dispersed among those three events. Sometimes she switches it up and talks to Tahani. Mostly just looks at her, says _girl you’re hot_ , and leaves.

“Janet?”

Bing!

She sighs and looks up at her, and starts going on and on about anything and everything. About how hot Chidi is, about how he’s trying to help the residents— how he looks at Simone. She can’t blame him, she’s stupidly hot and his type, but still, goddammit, a part of her is jealous and she doesn’t like it.

“You have fallen in love with Chidi multiple times,” Janet says. “Across many, many afterlife lifes, and in your life on Earth too. If nothing makes sense, you have to hold onto that. What are the odds—?”

“Janet, stop going philosophical on me, I just got it.”

Janet shuts up.

Eleanor draws in a breath and rubs her temples. Fork. Of course— against all odds, they’ve always found themselves attracted to each other. They’ve fallen for each other so many times. She doesn’t know the exact number. Was it nine? It doesn’t matter. It’s been many timelines, and there’s been over eight hundred with the original four being tortured, but nine. It’s a stupidly big number.

What are the odds of two people loving each other at the same time? What are the odds of that incredible thing happening over eight times, to the same two people? What are the odds?

“Against all odds,” Eleanor breathes, “we’ve fallen in love. Again and again. And we’re going to fall in love again!”

Janet smiles at her, and she wonders for a second if she’s somehow learned to read minds, because she bing!s and goes away on her own.

So she stays there, and Michael eventually comes by. She wants to ramble on and on about how she feels a little better now, about how Chidi and her will end up working out eventually in the long run, but she doesn’t. She grins at him, she lets him talk, lets him talk about his stupid plans for the new four.

When she goes out and talks to Chidi again, and all he sees is the stupidly hot architect, a part of her hurts all over, like she’s being hit on the stomach with a whiskey bottle and then hit in the face (not an example from a real event). But she tries to remember that, against all odds, they’ll fall in love again.

They always do.

 

 


End file.
